OpenFAST

In this guide, we will walk you through setting up and running OpenFAST, an open-source engineering toolset developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for simulating wind turbine dynamics.

We will cover:

  • Configuring OpenFAST and FAST.Farm for wind turbine and wind farm simulations.

  • Allowed Commands for running OpenFAST.

  • Example code to help you get started with simulations.

  • Available benchmarks to help you evaluate the performance of OpenFAST.

OpenFAST#

OpenFAST provides a modular framework for designing and analyzing wind turbines, allowing for detailed modeling of components such as blades, towers, and control systems.

OpenFAST comes integrated with FAST.Farm, an extension designed for large-scale wind farm simulations. FAST.Farm models complex interactions between turbines, accounting for factors like wake effects, turbulence, and terrain. FAST.Farm’s capabilities are indispensable for the design and planning of wind energy projects, unlocking the full potential of wind resources for renewable energy generation.

Both OpenFAST and FAST.Farm are compiled with OpenMP to enable parallel processing, enhancing the performance and scalability of your simulations.

Allowed Commands#

The following commands are available for running OpenFAST and its modules:

  • aerodyn_driver: Performs aerodynamic analysis for airflow dynamics around wind turbine blades.

  • beamdyn_driver: Focuses on structural analysis for the dynamic response of wind turbine blades and towers.

  • feam_driver: Executes finite element analysis (FEA), focusing on detailed structural modeling and simulation.

  • hydrodyn_driver: Simulates hydrodynamic interactions between turbine support structures and water bodies.

  • inflowwind_driver: Simulates atmospheric conditions, such as wind inflow, and their effects on wind turbine performance.

  • moordyn_driver: Focuses on mooring dynamics for floating wind turbines, analyzing the behavior of mooring systems.

  • openfast: The main OpenFAST executable for integrating and running comprehensive wind turbine simulations.

  • orca_driver: Enables aero-elastic and hydrodynamic coupled simulations, useful for analyzing turbine behavior in complex marine environments.

  • servodyn_driver: Simulates control system dynamics, modeling how wind turbine control systems respond to changing conditions.

  • subdyn_driver: Focuses on substructure dynamics, analyzing the interaction between turbine components and support structures.

  • turbsim: A standalone tool that generates atmospheric turbulence data for wind turbine simulations.

  • unsteadyaero_driver: Used for unsteady aerodynamics analysis, focusing on time-varying airflow around turbine blades.

  • FAST.Farm: Specialized for wind farm simulations, accounting for turbine interactions, wake effects, and turbulence.

Example Code#

In the following example, we demonstrate how to run an OpenFAST simulation using Inductiva’s cloud infrastructure.

"""OpenFAST example."""
import inductiva

# Instantiate machine group
machine_group = inductiva.resources.MachineGroup("c2-standard-4")
machine_group.start()

# Set simulation input directory
input_dir = inductiva.utils.download_from_url(
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/inductiva-api-demo-files/"
    "openfast-input-example.zip",
    unzip=True)

# List of commands to run
commands = ["openfast IEA-15-240-RWT-Monopile.fst"]

# Initialize OpenFAST simulator
openfast = inductiva.simulators.OpenFAST()

# Run simulation
task = openfast.run(input_dir=input_dir, commands=commands, on=machine_group)

task.wait()
task.download_outputs()

machine_group.terminate()

Inductiva OpenFAST Benchmarks#

The following benchmarks are available to help you evaluate the performance of the OpenFAST suite on Inductiva’s infrastructure:

  • 5MW Land: A simulation of a land-based NREL 5-MW turbine using BeamDyn as the structural module. It simulates 20 seconds with a time step size of 0.001.

  • 5MW OC4: Simulates an offshore, fixed-bottom NREL 5-MW turbine, with a focus on HydroDyn wave dynamics.

  • FAST.Farm: A tool for forecasting the performance and loads of wind turbines within a wind farm, running simulations in parallel with OpenFAST.